It's a Kitsune Thing
by drunkdragon
Summary: Kitsunes were different, Orochi knew that much. Just how different, though, never ceased to surprise her.
1. Affection

I do not own Fire Emblem.

* * *

 **Affection**

Kaden had a habit of rubbing against Orochi in his kitsune form. It had started after she had helped him out with his little cat problem, and since then it was a recurring ritual for him. He would start low, running the side of his nose and head by her exposed ankles before dragging his body up past her thighs. And the top of his hind legs would always brush past the side of her stomach. Finally, it would end with his body curling just a tiny bit around hers and his nose gently poking her palm.

When it happened for the first time, Orochi was a little surprised, but didn't pay much heed to it. Kaden was a kitsune, after all - he wasn't a human and therefore wasn't exactly subject to the same context and culture that she had grown accustomed to. And it never went anything beyond that. Just a simple brush up against her. It didn't happen all of the time either - just every now and then.

She later joked with him, "If you didn't have nine tails, sharp teeth, and could barrel me over, you'd be no different than a big silly animal that's gotten too fond of humans."

"Aww, thanks!" That only seemed to encourage Kaden, judging by the light swishing of his tails.

It's not like she didn't technically return the favor, either. More than once had she stumbled upon him laying on the edges of the strange castle Corrin's companion Lilith had introduced them all to. And when she did, it was quite easy to give him a simple belly rub that he gladly accepted.

After some time, however, she realized that she never saw Kaden emulate the same movement with someone else. He never really wrapped himself around another person, not to the extent that he did around her. He might duck to their side and come around the other half, but there was no brushing. At least not from their ankle to stomach. Maybe just a bit of their leg, but that was it. That got her thinking.

And so she began to try to ask the others. However, all of them replied with a negative. He never seemed particularly touchy in such a manner, though he wasn't deterred from invading personal space. Kaden was particularly good at pushing himself through a crowd, especially as a fox. His nose would poke in between shoulders and hips, forcing the people to the side like a wedge widening a crack.

That got her thinking _again_. And then after maybe a night or two at the mess hall where she thoughtfully stared at the pickled radish grasped in her chopsticks, Orochi realized she never saw him do that with another person because Kaden only ever seemed to do that when they were alone.

Finally, she figured that it was just best to ask. The opportunity arose when she spotted him lazing in the shade of his favorite tree in his human form. Carefully walking over, she watched as his ear flicked at her approach. Turning towards her, he gave her a bright smile, his ears twitching again just a little bit.

"Hi Orochi! You here to nap under this tree too?"

She didn't give him an immediate yes, nor did she reply with a no. Instead, she returned his happy gaze with a smile she didn't expect to produce. "I guess," she replied unsurely.

"Well, I got a spot right here with your name on it!" he patted the grass next to him. "Take a seat!" He said it so easily, letting the words roll off his tongue, and yet she was apprehensive, as if taking a seat would suddenly change things.

But she shook the thought away. What she was planning to ask was going to change things on its own. But she struggled to speak. Her found her gaze stuck on her fingers, wishing that she had her cards to tell fortunes with. But that would only be a distraction from her end goal, and she refocused on the task at hand.

Whatever Kaden was thinking, he seemed to pick up on her nervousness and remained still, allowing Orochi to put herself back together. And finally, her lips parted to speak.

"Kaden," she trailed off a little, brushing her hair back a tiny bit to take her mind off of the mild beating in her chest, "do you like me?"

He gave a small laugh. "Is that what you were trying to say all this time?" His grin threatened to split his face in two. "Of course I do! I like you lots!"

"No, I mean…" she gave a frustrated exhale to mask her nerves. "Do you... ugh…"

Why was this so hard? Shaking her head, she tried to speak again, but suddenly Kaden stiffened, snapping to attention and she stopped whatever she was trying to do.

"Ohhh," he let his voice drop off. It was a far off tone, as if a sudden realization had dawned upon him. Orochi would have been concerned if it wasn't for the fact that his tails were moving excitedly back and forth. As he stood up, at first she thought that he finally understood what she was really asking him. But she soon found that it was not quite the case.

"Hey, stand up! Oh, and stay still." he cheerfully said. A little confused, she rose to her feet and let him take the lead of the conversation. With a small flash, he was in his other form, tails still swishing. But with a quick blink they stopped and he looked her in the eye.

It was like there was a different level of intent and she felt her skin tingle. Watching him carefully, he broke his gaze and lowered his snout to the ground. With slow steps, he brought his nose to her ankle, running the skin against his face, following the same ritual that he did all the time with her.

But as slowly as it began, he just as slowly performed his ritual. Where previously it was was more of a warm greeting, now she could feel the rippling muscles with each deliberate motion and the thousands of hairs tickling the side of her stomach. She swore that she could hear his claws against the soft grass, no matter how impossible that actually seemed.

It was intense - Kaden was a killing machine, and here he was, showing off how graceful he was with this one motion. She let out a deep shaky exhale, one she didn't know she was holding onto.

When she felt his nose finally poke against her palm, instead of ending there he ducked his head a little lower and pushed forward, letting her hand rest against on top of him. And as if to add to the flourish, his nine tails rose to cover her front and pull her close against him, completing the wraparound.

"K-Kaden…" she almost couldn't speak, finally beginning to understand that this movement, this ritual, it was all just for her.

As if sensing the weakness in her knees with his predator intuition, he gave a quick bump to the back of them and she felt her legs buckle, putting her against his strong frame. Using his body he gently lowered her to ground, letting his tails swish over her legs and placing his head upon her lap. She blushed sharply at the sudden intimacy, and she glanced around to see if anyone saw them.

Again, like all the other times, no one was present.

He gave a low chuckle, and she could feel him shake all around her. "Looks like you've finally caught on."

It was warm, comfortable, and different. But most importantly, it felt protective, like a ring to ward off the dangers of nature. Later, as she lay against him scratching his ears and watching the shadows grow longer, he explained that when a kitsune rubbed up against one another in such a way, it was a sign, an official ritual of interest. It turns out Kaden had liked her for a long time.

* * *

A/N: Welcome to what appears to be the first actual KadenxOrochi fic on this site.

Or, for some of us, one of the few stories that feature these two characters at this time. Despite all the hype that went into this game, unfortunately we can tell that some parts were overlooked for others. I can appreciate what they were trying to do and how it was completed on an execution level, but they unfortunately had to sacrifice time for other things. In spite of it all though, to me this just means to me that it's an open canvas to put in what I would like to see in regards to relationships.

I'm starting to believe that these two are my Birthright OTP, despite how much their support conversation is actually lackluster. All they do is talk about cats, and there could have been opportunity for more. But that's okay - Kaden has dat smug look all day and Orochi's smile is best smile. Seriously, have you seen how bright her face looks when she does it? Winner faces for both of them.

Anyway, you can treat this as the support conversation that I would have liked to have seen, since it actually goes more into the context of what it means to be a kitsune. The game sorta just treated him like a human who had fox ears and a tail as opposed to a fox or mythical beast in a world surrounded by humans. This means that while they are able to provide some cultural background, there's a lot of missed opportunity to really develop Kaden as a character. I have two more chapters written out at this time. This one was fluff, the next is not-as-fluff, and the third is a bit more serious. Then I'll add onto it as I find more contextual or cultural things to explore. So it'll be a work in progress, though I don't expect it to go more than ten chapters in total.

I can also almost guarantee that this is all going to be in Orochi's point of view. We're human, she's human, Kaden isn't. It's a little thematic in that there are going to be some things that we're just not going to understand because of the context Kaden enters with as a kitsune and what we enter with as a human.

But enough rambling. I hope you enjoyed this as well as the upcoming chapter ideas I have in mind. You can kinda treat this like those thirty-theme OTP stories, except it's not thirty themes and I follow no standard.

PS: I'm still working on Conquest and have not gotten to Revelations yet, so no spoilers please~ But in terms of story, this should be vague enough to allow it to fit into the Revelations path since I don't intend to touch on any in-game story yet.

PPS: And yes, I know this gets in the way of everything else I'm doing. Patience, patience...

Have fun, and I'll see you all soon.


	2. Trust

**Trust:**

Kaden liked to lick the back of her hand with just the tiny portion of his tongue as a kitsune. She later asked him about it and he said that for the most part it was just a harmless way to greet a person. When they had grown closer, he began to lick with more of his tongue, sometimes going along her fingers or, if she was in a position that let him, her cheek.

It was never really much else. Judging by his tails, she could tell that he was excited simply to be with her. But he always seemed just a little cautious, never quite letting himself go in her presence just yet. He treated her like she was something just a little out of reach on a level he couldn't approach. There was some kind of fear or barrier for him that kept him from really sharing his life with her.

And it confused Orochi. They had done the hand-holding and particularly intimate… hugs of sorts (she had no real other way to describe how Kaden would wrap around her besides that). After all of this, she couldn't pinpoint why he was still being cautious like this, not when she was being as vulnerable and open as she was to him. She had fallen asleep in some of those hugs!

It bothered her that she was seeing this. If they were to be in a relationship, then Kaden would have to just as open and vulnerable as she was. And so finally, when they were lounging around in the shade of his favorite tree again, she spoke.

"Kaden."

He lifted his fox head from her lap to stare her in the eye. "Yes, Orochi?"

She placed her hands in the space that his lack of contact created before speaking again, a small frown on her lips. "You trust me, right?"

"Yeah, of course I do!" his lips pulled back in what was probably supposed to be a smile, though it only served to bare his fangs.

"Well, correct me if I'm mistaken but… it feels like the two of us aren't really meeting at the same level."

"Oh…" he deflated a little. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Orochi thinks it's more along the lines of what you haven't done yet."

"Huh?" there was a tone of honest confusion, like a child that was unsure of what just happened.

"Think, Kaden. I'm letting you get in on my personal space, and I let you get away with hugs and whatever small licks of affection you stick in." She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "And more importantly, I share things with you. While you certainly let me into your personal space, that seems to be it. You don't let me get in any closer than that. You don't share things with me."

"Well," he trailed off, "that's because you haven't shown that it's okay for me to do so yet."

What? She had done all these things for him so far and he had the galls to say that she didn't trust him?

"Kaden," she growled frustratedly, but she bit her lip and took a breath before continuing. "I've shown you a lot of things. I'm not sure I get what you mean here."

"And I've shown you just the same!" he replied back. "I mean, you're literally holding my neck in your hand. How is that not trusting you?"

Her brow furrowed, and she angrily replied. "What does your neck have to do with anything?"

"O-Oh." There was that tone again, that tone where Kaden realized something and she didn't. Whatever demeanor he had faded away. His ears tucked against his head as low as they could and his tails seemed to compress and shrink impossibly.

"You... You never understood," he said nervously.

Orochi did her best to keep her voice level. This was exactly what she had wanted, but just not under the situation she expected. "Understood what?"

Rising from her form, he trotted away a little before turning back into his human shape. He then slowly shifted himself so that he was laying down with his stomach on the ground.

"Put your hand on my neck."

"Kaden, what-"

"Just… Just do it, please."

Taking a deep breath and not knowing what to expect, she stepped forward and knelt down. Gingerly, she let her right hand fall upon the back of his neck and he flinched. In another brief flash, he had turned back into a fox, but his position hadn't changed. He was still lying prone in front of her, and her hand was still around him.

"When kitsunes hunts and attack prey, if it's something very big like a deer, we always go for the neck. And when we get into disputes or we need to fight back against an attacker, we go for the neck as well. We strike at that point because it is both the weakest part of the body and the most critical to life. With enough damage to the neck, anything will die."

Opening his eyes, she could almost see them shivering. "Feel my neck, Orochi. Try to find my pulse."

With an unsure breath, her hand began to trail through the fur, watching as he flinched beneath her and did his best to stay still. But finally she felt it - a hot, quick beat that ran below her fingertips. Running her fingers along it, she watched as he trembled violently, staring at her with fearful eyes. A lone, uncharacteristic whimper escaped his throat, but it was quickly silenced by a blink before locking eyes with Orochi again.

"If another kitsune or beast were to bite into my neck… it probably won't matter how strong I am. I'm… I'm a goner," he weakly said. "So for us kitsunes to present our neck to another… it's a sign of trust. And… in the case that we are sharing it with someone that we want to be intimate with… It's not that much different than when a human… well…"

He uncomfortably trailed off, letting his line remain unfinished. But Orochi knew what was unsaid. But to think that all these times she had run her hands down the back of his neck, she had merely treated him like he was an animal that simply enjoyed the motion. With his position in front of her, even if he could struggle and throw her off, it would just be a simple word, an incantation and Kaden would be dead. It had never occurred to her that in the wilds this meant something else entirely.

That thought made her retract her hand, made her stomach sick. "I'd never do that to you, Kaden. You don't have to be afraid of that."

He stayed silent for a moment, but finally he spoke, stirring her from the unbidden thoughts. "Orochi." She looked at his eyes. Despite all the fear and nervousness he displayed just a moment ago, he stayed still in front of her, not rising from his position.

He did say that he trusted her.

"Your neck. May… may I touch your neck?"

"You mean… with your hands? Like me?"

"No. Not with hands, Orochi," His ears flattened a little, tails remaining still, "but… like how a… how a kitsune would touch another's neck."

The weight of his question finally settled on her head.

"Well," she started, "how does a kitsune do it?"

He paused before answering. "We use our snout."

She remembered the teeth hidden behind his lips, the rows of canines that had torn through the bodies of their enemies. Her eyes fell to her hands that were now clenched in her lap. Just as her hand could have ended his life in a moment, his teeth could do just the same.

Orochi was afraid. She knew it, and she was sure that Kaden picked up on it as well. But it felt like she owed it to him after the revelation. Swallowing back whatever thoughts she had, she gave a small nod. "Okay," she consented. "How should I do this?"

Kaden rose to his feet. "Just stay still." A brief pause, and then he spoke again. "And maybe close your eyes for the first time."

With one final glance at him, she obliged and let her eyelids slowly fall. The first thing she heard was his footsteps, matting the grass down in cautious steps. The second was his breathing, feeling her skin crawl and shoulders tense as it drew closer to her. Then she felt a warm snip of air blowing across the area where the shoulders became her neck.

She felt his nose poke into her neck first, sniffing about, feeling her skin, and then shortly afterward his tongue came out and began to tentatively lick the area. She exhaled and swallowed again, pushing aside the thought of blood and teeth. But soon his tongue settled on one particular point, brushing it again and again. She could feel the particular part of skin pounding against it, and Orochi realized that just as she had found his pulse, he had found hers.

It was racing. But as he licked it again and again, the fear died away and she opened her eyes. She looked at his head and noticed that his ears and tails were still tucked away, making him look tiny for a beast of his size.

She briefly ran her tongue over the top of her lips. "I think I understand now." Her hand rose to his neck, quickly finding the spot that he had guided her to. Kaden paused, but continued as he felt her thumb run over that point again and again. Just as he allowed her to touch him at this point, she was beginning to allow him to be this close to her.

As they watched the sun set once more with him wrapped around her, Kaden talked about everything. He talked about what he wanted to do after everything ended, about the kitsune village, and how he worried if his absence was affecting them. All the while Orochi kept her hand at his neck, gently scratching its back and letting her thumb rest against that one point he told her to find. His pulse still ran hot, but it was slower than before. More relaxed. He felt safe in her hands, and she in his.

* * *

A/N: Hello again everyone, and welcome back to my little OTP corner. I don't really have too much to say in that despite how hard I tried to make this chapter work, it still felt a little lackluster in the middle. Still, it felt good enough and I had already written a bunch, so I'm letting it go up.

Not real much to say here besides the different ideas of trust. As one that relates a bit more to his animalistic/kitsune side and being a predator, Kaden knows that life in the wild is quite brutal. Naturally, Orochi doesn't quite see it on that level. Pretty simple concept, so nothing needs too much explaining I feel.

Reviews!

robotortoise: I am writing Kaden to be a little more like an animal, so a cat would actually be quite close to what I'm going for.

Guest: unfortunately I haven't read too much into the other supports yet, so I don't know what happens. I do know though that I feel like these two might hit it off a bit better than other pairings. We'll see more of that in the next chapter, however.

Anyway, like I said this and the next chapter are already pre-written, so that's why these are going up so quickly. The chapters are also meant to be shorter than my standard multi-chapter works, so that may be why they're going up relatively quickly.

So long for now, though, and leave a review! They always help.


	3. Uncertainty

**Uncertainty:**

Orochi didn't mind a good drink every now and then. And while the soldiers of Nohr had shared with them some of the harder liquors she had seen in a while, a warm cup of sake was still her preferred poison. A chilled one wasn't so bad either, but something about the heat of it and how it settled into her stomach was nice. It also brought the sweetness out a little more, something that she definitely enjoyed. It certainly helped that it was a ritualistic drink in addition to one that was enjoyed simply for drinking purposes.

And today was one of those ritualistic days. In a move that was expected by many but was equally surprising in the end, Lady Hinoka had accepted Silas' offer of marriage. It was a brave request, and it was an even braver task to fulfill. While he came from a well-off family of Nohr and had a heart of good intentions, Silas was still a knight and Hinoka was still a princess, not to mention the history of animosity between the two nations. Some honest questions were asked, and finally Hinoka decided that the for all the days of fear and the unknown, there was the opportunity for an invaluable joy behind it all. That, and they were all soldiers. The only thing they really feared was the blade that might end them.

It wasn't the first wedding they had seen, but it was the first one between cultures the troop had experienced. And in the end it was an amazing and festive event. Both sides came together to create a truly unique wedding held on the open grounds of Corrin's castle - Nohr and Hoshido customs melded together in a way that seemed more perfect than it could have been possible. Everyone came out in the best that they had to offer to celebrate the moment, and if they didn't have something it was provided for in some way.

The bouquet toss was particularly interesting, especially when Kaden had misinterpreted it as a game and caught it in his jaws. This then lead to a mostly lighthearted chase by everyone - the women by tradition and the men because "That's not for you!" - until the second lap, where the kitsune stopped and presented the mess of flowers to Orochi. Not one to throw away an opportunity at fun, especially when a little intoxicated, she plucked a pale purple orchid from the bunch and threw the bouquet back into the crowd.

"You know, Kaden, according to Nohr tradition a woman is supposed to catch the bouquet when it is thrown. And while a kitsune is up for debate, it's certainly not meant for a man."

He paid no attention, merely transforming and taking a seat near her with a big smile and patting the grass next to him. Almost instinctively Orochi went to his side, leaning the back of her shoulder against his chest and slouching a little. Setting her drink down as carefully as she could, she picked up the flower and removed part of the stem before placing it onto the side of her hair.

When she went to try and grab her drink again, however, she saw that it had been snatched away and was now at the lips of the man next to her, who was shooting her a sly smirk.

"Are you going to give that back?"

"Well, that depends. Do you think we need two cups for the both of us?" She felt his tails shift to help support her as his arm snaked around her waist, settling at the side of her hip.

"Usually, no," she reached out for the bottle of sake that was sitting in a warm bath and grabbed a clean cup from the arrangement in front of her. "But I've always enjoyed warm sake, and I'm not about to pass up the opportunity when there is plenty to go around and sharing isn't a requirement." Refilling his cup and pouring herself a new one, she let her hand fall on top of his.

By now all knew that the two of them were a thing. They were spotted on and off the battlefield together, and it wasn't very hard to figure out the start of a budding romance. It was all but confirmed when Kagero had approached her and asked out of curiosity if this was the case.

In spite of all the joy, similar to Lady Hinoka's initial concerns Orochi had many questions of her own still moving about in her mind. She did desire a togetherness with Kaden, but she was also painfully aware of their differences. For one, he was a kitsune. As she had already seen on multiple occasions, this came with its own cultures and contexts.

But what occupied her mind the most was time. Kaden was over two hundred years old and would live for hundreds more. Time was different to him, and he would outlive her by a grand margin.

If they had children, would they also outlive her being half kitsune? Would they inherit any human properties from her, if even at all? Could they even have children together? How would their relationship look like towards the end of her life? All honest, legitimate, and fair questions. But as she asked these questions to herself over and over, she found that it wasn't even her primary concern when it came to time.

What worried Orochi the most was his past relations, and how he felt about them. After her passing, would that just be it? Would it mark the end of an era for him as he moved onto another, kitsune or otherwise?

How many previous partners had come before her?

She never used to wonder about such questions when it came to men and relations. But Kaden's honest pursuit for her seemed to bring about a desire for her to honestly pursue him. But that meant that the questions she had put off from before were now demanding to be answered. She wanted to look past them, to just be with him, but the fears tugged away at her.

She let out a frustrated sigh and quickly downed her shot. It suddenly seemed more bitter than sweet.

"You're usually a bit more rambunctious when you've been drinking," Kaden softly said, rocking the hand on her hip back and forth a little. "Anything you want to talk about?"

Maybe it was all the drinks in her system, the long nights of wondering, or how he had presented the bouquet to her, but somehow Orochi had it in her to ask the question that had been on her mind the most. She stared deeply into the bottom of her empty cup, her hand tensing over his.

"Have you ever had someone before me?"

Kaden failed to respond at first. She felt his chest rise and fall with a breath, and she looked up just in time to see an ear twitch. Before she could glean anything else, though, he tilted his head back and downed his drink with the same ferocity as she did earlier. His hand squeezed roughly at her hip - neither playful nor lustful to Orochi, but instead it felt needy.

He wasn't smiling. "Well, I've-" his mouth closed again and he put the cup in front of him before refilling it and lifting it to his lips. "I've had flings with humans and kitsune here and there ever since I was about fifty, but I've only ever tried to settle down to mate once."

He took a sip, staring at the milky drink. "You?"

The question hadn't been expected, but she ultimately answered. "I've… slept around a few times. But in the end nothing serious came from them. I… just didn't feel like committing."

"Bad fortunes?"

"For a few of them, yes."

"But not all of them."

She shifted uncomfortably. "Not all of them, no."

His chest rose and fell. "What kept you from committing?" he eventually asked.

Ultimately she shrugged her shoulders, shaking her head. "I don't know. I'm not the best or most honorable of persons, I guess."

He took another sip. "Have you looked at our fortune?"

Divining was second nature to Orochi, but she had never been so scared to divine a reading in her life. "Every time I've tried, I'm too afraid of what it will say. The cards aren't always truthful, and they are open to interpretation at times as well. But sometimes, when things are just right, you know it will be true. It's as if someone reached down and pointed them out to you. But they tend to be bad in those cases."

Kaden turned and looked her in the eye. "Are you afraid that it will say bad things for our future? Or are you afraid of losing what we currently have?"

She shrugged her shoulders and sighed, falling away from his gaze. "I honestly don't know." She was saying that a lot, and she felt herself cringe.

He took another drink again, finishing off the cup and pouring another for himself. Finally, he spoke again, answering her hidden question. "Her name was Tamaki. Reddish gold coat, strong frame. Pretty. Real pretty. Her left ear was nicked on the side of it, probably from a run-in she had as a kit, but that only seemed to make her more beautiful. A real vixen in every sense, so to speak."

Orochi tensed as he continued to describe her, trying to draw an image of who this woman - she shook her head - who this _kitsune_ was. "She was fierce. At the time the previous village chieftain, my father, had just stepped down. He wasn't as strong anymore and it was time for the next generation to take over, so there was a bit of a power vacuum. As a result, the first time we ran into each other we fought until we were both too tired to go on," he gave a single chuckle at the memory. "We were both bloody for days from our wounds."

"As time went on, though, she and I ended up being the final contenders, having beaten and swayed the others to one of our sides. And so we met again for one last fight to determine who was the victor."

He didn't speak for a while, and Orochi looked up to see that his eyes were closed. "Is something wrong?"

He gave a small nervous chuckle. "Not really. I'm just thinking of the best way to explain it." He bit his lip and release a breath. "I guess the easiest way to say this is that I beat her. I beat her by a large difference compared to the first time."

"And later that night, I went to her home and… Well, we had our way with each other."

Orochi's surprised voice was louder than she anticipated. "What? Just like that?"

Kaden wistfully smiled. "Had a feeling." He poured out more sake for the both of them. "It makes sense, really. I was the strongest male in the village and she was the strongest female. Strong parents make strong offspring, and she would have done the same with me. It was almost natural for us in a way, though she was still a bit bitter over losing for a while. We were mostly amicable afterwards, but sex was often like a fight. Lot of biting, lot of scratching, a bit of blood from both sides. But it was great. We liked that we fought at those times."

"So…" she trailed off, trying to make sense of it all, "would you say it was consensual?"

"It's true that I came in from the side of power and she was still recovering, but it was very consensual," he drank from his cup again. "We saw our anger with each other, but we also saw the opportunity. While I was the victor, we both respected our strengths and that, in regards to sex and mating, we wanted each other. It simply made sense. I don't know when love really became a factor for us, but eventually we could see that it was there."

Orochi furrowed her brow in thought, now wishing that she wasn't as intoxicated as she was. It was starting to get in the way of deeper thinking. At the same time though, this was not the conversation she was expecting, and with all this information, she was starting to understand why some people needed drinks. It was almost too much for her to absorb. "I don't think I get it."

"It's okay. It's…" he struggled to find the right words. But in the end, all he could say was "It's a kitsune thing. You might not understand for a while."

"Right." She took a large gulp. "So then what happened?"

"Nothing much. We had sex on a casual basis, though we both knew what was on our minds. And so about a year later I finally asked her what she thought about mating and raising offspring."

Orochi's heart pounded at the thought that Kaden might have children he left behind. "What did she say?"

"She agreed relatively easy, and we started to plan for it. It was mostly just building a more suitable home for the planned offspring."

Orochi looked at the festivities around her. "Any fun proposals or vows?"

Kaden shook his head. "Kitsunes don't go through the ceremony of marriage, but we are monogamous in many cases. A marriage ceremony is a human thing. We just mate and other kitsunes know and accept it as fact."

"Mhmm. And then what happened?"

He bit his lip, as if unsure if he should continue speak. But he took a breath and spoke.

"Hunters."

Orochi instantly regretted her curiosity and felt her eyes turn away back to his hand. She squeezed it. "I'm sorry," was all she could muster to say.

He pulled her closer to him. "Don't be. Not even your cards could have told you that."

She felt terrible that her curiosity was insatiable. She wanted to know what happened to this Tamaki. Did they ever have a child together? She squeezed his hand, unsure if it was to comfort him or to stabilize herself. "How did it happen?"

She saw his jaw clench, his frown sharpen, his eyes narrow. He downed what was left of his drink.

His voice hitched and cracked, and she felt her stomach lurch as she heard his answer. "I don't know."

"Kaden…"

His voice shook a little as he spoke, pushing through his pain. "I came back from hunting and she… she wasn't at our den. There was no blood, no signs of a fight, but I could smell the humans in our territory. I wanted to go after them, but it was too risky to try it alone and my duty to the village came first. But in the back of my mind, no matter how hard I didn't want to believe it, I…" he took a deep, shaky breath. "I just knew she was gone."

She squeezed his hand again as her conscience forced her to turn away, unable to look at him with her watering eyes. Instead focusing on the white sediment of her drink that was settling at the bottom of the cup. She felt him squeeze back in that same needy manner.

"At the end of the day, death is death. We kitsune kill to eat, and we accept that we, too, can die at any time. But I was furious and we knew they would come back. And when they did, we were ready. We didn't care if they were poachers or just honest people trying to survive. We killed them."

Flashes of teeth and spilled blood returned to Orochi's mind. Was Kaden as ferocious then as he was now, when the two of them were on the battlefield? Was that why he refused to leave her side in combat? "How long ago was that?" she quietly asked.

He took a breath, "Forty years ago."

"And... have you been with another since then?"

He shakily sighed, taking his hand out from beneath and putting it on top of hers. "Like I said, I've had a fling here and there afterward, but I think in my head I was scared. I… I didn't want to go through that again. And the uncertainty behind it all, too. What if she was still out there? What if my instincts were wrong, despite everything that shows otherwise?"

"But forty years is a long time. And after seeing and really knowing you, and what we've shared with each other…" he trailed off, taking one last gulp and setting the cup down. He bit his lip nervously, "You…" he tightened his grip on her hand. "You make me want to change that, to try again."

Orochi needed nothing else at this point. Setting her cup down, she angled herself to face him as she gently grasped his chin. Without any hesitation, she turned his head towards her and closed the distance, bringing her lips against his. He didn't react immediately and for a moment she doubted herself. But before she could make any second guesses his tails wrapped tightly around her. He pulled her in for a second kiss and his lips were sweet, like sake.

When they broke apart, they had no words for each other. Nothing else needed to be said, but their smiles and tears of relief spoke volumes. The two sat in companionable silence, merely content in having shared their fears and hopes for their relationship. His admission was good enough for her, previous relations and qualms be damned. As the festivities finally died down and other couples began to return to their tents or otherwise fall into their own pairs, Orochi filled her cup one last time for the night.

"So, two hundred years old, and a handful of partners to boot," she trailed off. She felt a small smile bud on her lips, her playful self returning. "Do you think a young girl like Orochi can teach an old fox like you new tricks?"

"Well, that depends." His hand drifted off of hers and back to her hip as he let a large smile cut across his face. "Think you can handle six inches of tongue in your pussy?"

Orochi choked on her drink.

* * *

A/N: I tried to keep this as serious as I could. I did, really. But I had planned to use that line at the beginning of the chapter, and I couldn't resist sneaking it in to have the last laugh, so to speak.

Anyway, this chapter was perhaps my favorite to write so far. It's a deeper look into Kaden, and more importantly it explores an aspect that's not touched upon very often - time. While his age isn't explicitly stated, the class description of the Ninetails is that he is over 200 years old. So that means that Orochi has to be going into this relationship with these questions in her mind. And from what I know with relationships, these types of questions should be asked. I was a little concerned that I made him similar to Lon'qu, but I think there's enough difference between the two.

As for Orochi's side, I took some liberties with her. While young, I would say that she definitely feels to be a bit on the older side of the cast. If I were to guess, maybe a bit below Camilla's age by a year or two. Unsure if I'm going a little too far with it and her previous relations, but otherwise I'm happy with how it worked out here.

Finally, Tamaki. This is my first time making an OC that will have a bit more of an impact in the overall story, though you can expect her actual presence to be low. She won't make too many appearances or references, though you will see her in full at the very end, just not in the way you're probably expecting it. I think you'll like how it goes, though.

Reviews!

AceBen: Glad you're enjoying it so far! I'm honestly not sure how far it will go. I have some general ideas for a pathway, but I'm trying to keep it within the context of topics that hold different cultural values between the two.

Guest: Haha, sorry if I stole your thunder with this idea. To be fair, though, this was written well before the first chapter was posted~ As for Kaden having a sad backstory or whatnot, I think it can be fifty-fifty. We don't see it expounded on in the supports so far (or I haven't at least), but he's also over 200 years old. He has to have some things that has happened to him, which is what I used in here.

Anyway, hope you had fun! At this point I've finished with my pre-written chapters. I do plan to have the next one be an end of sorts to their A through S rank support, and then the ones afterwards except for the last one will be smaller topics in one chapter.

Hope you enjoy, and I'll see you all soon. And leave a review! I like reading them over and over again.


	4. Future

**Future**

The army had made its refuge in Lilith's world once more. After a hardfought victory, rest, relaxation, and restocking were the core focuses of the group. And while Orochi was a court diviner, her actual wartime duties were far less compared to others. This meant that aside from her usual task of attempting to read the future and provide fortunes, this period of time was one where she actually had few responsibilities to handle.

Thus, after a restful wash in the castle's baths, Orochi had found herself visiting the shade of her and Kaden's tree. Like clockwork, the kitsune was already lounging underneath it, though with how his ear flicked at her approach he was not yet asleep. Moving to his side she gently laid against his stomach and he let himself curl around her, just like how they had been doing for the past several months.

And with the air growing cooler, wrapped in his soft and inviting fur, she felt herself drifting off to sleep. It was a common enough occurrence by now, and the couple had long grown used to the gentle and sometimes gleeful gazes of the other members in Corrin's army. What they had was not a secret, and she wasn't worried about what others may say. They were soldiers after all, and in the face of life and death the circumstances of relations were one of the more trivial facts.

Still, when Kaden had nudged her side to rouse Orochi for dinner, her mind was in its waking moments. She watched with bleary eyes as he said something, his lips moving in some vaguely recognizable fashion. His ears flicked, something that she recalled as a nervous habit of his.

"Mm...Mruh?" was her tired response. Not one of her more graceful moments, and Kaden gave a hearty laugh in return. Orochi was not a morning person by any means. How Kagero was always able to rise with the sun was beyond her. He licked her cheek for her troubles, making her flinch a bit and come to rise. With one last gentle huff, he unwrapped himself from her and transformed back into a person, taking away the warmth of his fur and forcing her to get up for dinner.

The meal itself was a standard routine by now. Out of convenience, the two of them often ended up sitting at the edge of one of the tables since Kaden's tails would have made it a little difficult for others to sit around the two of them, but neither really minded. It allowed for more private conversations most of the time. Kaden didn't always have something to say, and neither did Orochi, but there was a simple air between the two of them. Sometimes he would have things to share, and other times it was easier for her to fill the void in between.

But recently the two of them sat in amicable silence, sometimes side by side or across from each other. Sometimes she would brush her foot gently against his and vice versa, and if the two of them were seated next to each other, one of their hands always seemed to be situated in the other's.

Today was different though. Kaden hadn't stopped flicking his ear since she woke up from her nap, and it had been bothering Orochi throughout their silent meal. When the food was finally put away and the two of them walked out, she gently turned to face him.

"Is everything alright, Kaden?"

"Oh," his body snapped up a little, straightening a bit. "I guess you don't recall what I said to you before dinner. You hadn't fully woken up yet after all."

She gave a nervous smile of her own. "Orochi has never claimed to be a graceful waker."

"Well, that's okay," he said, ears flicking again.

And then he spoke, his words finally coming back to her and ringing across her mind.

"When this war is all over, come back to the village with me."

It was phrased as a sentence, but it was really a question. Kaden wanted her to spend the rest of her life with him. He had said it so quietly, almost as if it wasn't from his own lips. He had proposed to her in a way that was probably normal for kitsunes.

"Kaden…"

The first thing she wanted to say was yes. The two of them had been through much together, from wounds to kissing to sharing their secrets. But her own fears came clawing back at her - she was different. She had never imagined that her partner in life was going to be a kitsune, and nearly immortal in comparison to her. What would life be like in his village as a human?

This time it was his turn to mirror her question. "Is... everything alright, Orochi?"

Her whole body was tense. She thought she would be happy to hear him to ask her to be with him. But instead she only found the smaller doubts, the doubts that were originally pushed aside by her concern of time, that had plagued her during Lady Hinoka's wedding and that she desperately desired to have answers for.

She forced them down. She knew her overall answer was yes, but the details still concerned her.

"Yes," she said, though lacking in enthusiasm. "I will. I-" she bit her lip and breathed, trying to contain the joy and fear and anxiety curling in her toes. "I just- I just want to-"

One of his hands slowly reached out for hers, softly squeezing it. "It's okay if you want to check."

"I feel silly," she blurted out. "I know that I want to, and that I will. It's just that-" she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, forcing herself to slow down before opening them and looking back into his eyes.

His jaw was set straight. He was just as nervous as her, ear flicking once more. All Kaden wanted to hear was a yes, and now look at her, barely able to even give him that! "Kaden, I'm sorry, it's something I've been doing my whole life, and I just…" her mouth opened and closed before finally letting out a short, defeated breath.

He leaned in and she felt his lips ghost across her cheek.

"It's alright, Orochi. Go check your cards. You'll know where to find me when you've sorted everything out."

* * *

Tea leaves. Animal bones. Her own tarot cards stacked high with one card atop the other, one set provided to her as an official court diviner and the other the painted by Kagero. And finally the ubiquitous lots.

Orochi had actually set them all out yesterday night, and when she awoke the next morning they were still where she left them. She was so intent to try and see into their future that she had pulled out all of her tools, refusing to leave any stone unturned. She wanted all opinions known to her. And yet when she finally reached out and brushed her hand across the cards, she felt herself pause.

She had already told Kaden that she will. It was in her desires to be with him, and she had already seen how happy Lady Hinoka and Silas were after the ceremony. It was not perfect, and they already needed to sit down together and talk between each other regarding an argument. But in spite of that there was joy. Would a terrible fortune change how she felt?

She trusted these cards, these tools. On more than one occasion they had been very accurate in their fortunes. But as she stared at them, the candle dwindling down to little more than a stub of wax, for the first time she doubted their efficacy. They might not even depict her future but a different part of it.

In the end, she had gone to sleep, lamenting over how she had wasted her own time and left Kaden in the dark. But it had solidified her resolve. Even if the cards had given her a poor outlook, her own aching heart was proof enough that divination held no weight in this decision. Morning had come, and as soon as she could she rose to her feet, a little wobbly and unsteady. Orochi had long known by now that mornings were the worst time of day for her. But she needed to clean up her unused tools and speak with Kaden.

Yet as soon as she reached for her cards, her clumsiness fell into motion. She had not grabbed the entire stack on the first attempt and missed the very last card. When she reached out to pick it up her hand bumped into the canister of lots, causing them to nearly tip over. She then instead attempted to steady it, but a single piece fell out. And in addition to her haste, she knocked over the container of animal bones, which also sent some of her tea leaves flying.

It was an absolute headache she thought to herself. Of course when she already abandoned her desire to divinate a fortune, all of her tools would attempt to leave her one. She closed her eyes and sighed, leaning back from the table. But as she opened them, she felt her gaze naturally reading what was left.

Sometimes, though, the pieces were just right.

Orochi felt her spine shiver. As she read them again, her throat went dry. They were telling her something - the message across the three pieces so far painted a coherent image. Her eyes fell to the unflipped card, and she swallowed. Blinking her eyes and letting her lips grow thin, she turned it over. She let the full message come across her conscious, and all tiredness faded away.

" _Two souls joined in harmony, the third retires from her vigil."_

Tamaki, after all these forty years-

She quickly bowed her head and clasped her hands in prayer, asking for the gods to grant the kitsune a safe journey for the rest of her afterlife. But her own heart raced as she prayed. Her words were quick and almost without heart. As soon as the final words left her lips, she stood and raced out of her tent into the morning light.

"Kaden!" she yelled out, her hair whipping her sides as she turned left and right. She didn't spot him among the early crowd, who had come to give her an odd stare. She wasn't an early riser, and a stray thought let her know that her hair was down. But none of that mattered. If he wasn't amongst the group now, that meant that he was at the tree again.

Her feet took her past the collection of tents, and soon she was at their own location, her breath just a bit labored. And underneath it was Kaden, who was in his more human form. His head snapped to her, and her joy must have been present, for his own lips began to curl into the biggest smile she had ever seen. His tails began to thrash wildly and he stood up just in time to catch her in a tight hug.

"Yes!" she breathlessly yelled, relieved and happy and with tears coming down her face. "Yes to anything and everything!" A joyous laugh erupted from the kitsune, and his tails wrapped around her body. At some point they had fallen over together, her sides registering the wetness of the morning dew, and the laughter passed. Yet they clung to each other, a peaceful joy and a smile shared between the two of them.

She sniffed. "I'm s-sorry I left you waiting."

His arms and tails briefly squeezed her. "It's okay," he whispered, kissing her on the lips. "You needed it. I was asking a lot of you."

Orochi shook her head, "It didn't matter in the end. The fortune wasn't about our future anyway."

At this Kaden's ears flicked and a confused look fell upon his face. "It wasn't?"

She whispered the fortune into his ears, and he pulled her in as close as possible.

"Tamaki brought me to you."

"Not quite," she chuckled, "Orochi thinks she knew we were perfect for one another."

* * *

A/N: Hello everyone! Just another update to my OTP for FE:Fates at this time. I'll be frank in that when I figured out how to do this chapter, it sounded a bit better in my head. Orochi, having been ingrained to divine fortunes, feels a little insecure about just going off with Kaden. But at the same time, that's actually not a how a person makes a decision most of the time. In most situations, we know what we want from the get-go. We just have to deal with answering our own small objections. So in my head I couldn't really rationalize Orochi actually being split right down the middle. With all the buildup I had been putting into the other chapters, it just didn't seem real for her to have final objections.

So in the end, I decided to have it so that she wanted going to say yes, and in fact she does, but just had to answer those small digging questions in the back of her head. She's leaving her culture to join his, which means she's going to be out in a village of sorts as opposed to the city life she is used to. And then with how much she divines and believes in her fortune stuff, she had to have at least some form of assurance - if it's a good reading that's great, and if it's a bad reading maybe she can figure out how to delay the misfortunes.

But in the end, Tamaki makes a return again. My idea is that she was kind of being a protective spirit of sorts for Kaden. She sees his struggles from the afterlife and protects him in some way from the more destructive side of himself, eventually guiding the two of them together. This is actually the end of Tamaki for now, though. We won't be seeing her again for a bit, though she makes one last appearance somewhere else. Again, I think you'll like what I have planned, so stay tuned for that.

Reviews!

Guest: Kaden is allowed to be as playful as he wants~ Unfortunately though I must admit that I have not yet beaten Conquest. I've been lazy about it, so unfortunately I can promise nothing regarding your hopeful requests, haha.

Warhawk07: Oh, if you think mildly drunk Kaden is something... stay tuned for the next chapter maybe? Not sure when or how I'll talk about it, but we'll see how it all turns out.

Will Peterson: Thank you for your thoughts! This chapter is a bit more Orochi-focused as opposed to being about Kaden, but there will be other chapters that return to him. And technically, since the ship has sailed, so to speak, this means we now have another avenue to explore - what the kitsune village is like.

Anyway, where the next chapter will go is still up in the air. We have a path opened up to the kitsune village as well as a bit of Selkie, though I'm not sure how much she will be involved. I think it's easy for me to say that I have a few things planned out, but I'm just not sure what order they will be completed. I'm also not sure how much content will be able to available about each topic. What might happen is that there will be a few big things that will take up one chapter while multiple smaller topics will share a chapter.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that just because they're together now doesn't mean that they're all done sorting things out. As many probably agree, marriage is not a capstone but a step in life for many. Kaden and Orochi aren't quite done yet.

Cya for now, and leave a review! I don't know if anyone else seriously ships these two in any way, shape, or form besides me, haha.


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